Analysis of Cement and Pharma Sector for Investment Purposes

Abstract

This report on ‘Analysis of Cement and Pharma Sector for Potential Investment’ has been prepared to give an introduction and overview to the readers. The views presented in it are solely my views for potential investment avenues in these sectors and thus, may vary from person to person. The facts and data included in the report have been taken from official and government sources and are therefore reliable. Talking about the cement sector, India stands as the 2nd largest producer after China and accounts for 8% of the world output. The government has allowed 100% FDI in this sector with India’s share of exports being 2.7% of world exports and imports being 1.3% of world imports. The sector has helped in huge employment generation of around 1 million in the country. The major raw material used in production of cement is limestone, accounting for nearly 92%. As for the pharmaceutical sector, it has been extended to the healthcare sector in this report. India accounts for more than 3000 pharmaceutical companies having more than 10,500 manufacturing units. The country is the 3rd largest producer of pharmaceutical products in the world including more than 60,000 generic brands. India also manufactures 60% of global vaccines. Annual Indian pharmaceutical exports are very high at US$ 16.44 billion while annual imports are low at US$ 2.388 billion. All these factors make the pharma sector a promising investment avenue in India even in the current times of Covid-19. The Indian healthcare sector is not as good in shape as the pharmaceutical sector. The healthcare of India is ranked 112 in world rankings by WHO. While its market size in India is only US$ 55 billion, jobs created in this sector stand at 2.7 million. There is a scarcity of hospital beds (0.7 per 1000 people) as well as physicians (0.8 per 1000 people) in the country. The government spending is low at 3.53% of GDP and the public expenditure on health per capita is only US$ 69.29. The population of India spends heavily on out-of-pocket health expenditure at 62.40% and only 44% have a health insurance cover. All of this points towards a miserable state of Indian healthcare sector.